


His Reveries

by xuhei



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: F/M, Fantasy AU, I forgot to upload this ages ago, I hope that is all of them, mermaid au, not rlly sure what else you can judge this as, school au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-01
Updated: 2018-09-01
Packaged: 2019-07-05 15:10:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,206
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15866157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xuhei/pseuds/xuhei
Summary: ‘I went to a witch.’“You what?”‘I.’“Yeah...”‘Went to.’“Yes.”‘A witch.’“What?” Your wide eyes somehow tell Mark that he’s done something wrong. “What do you mean? What did you ask her for?”Mark looks down to the water, preferring not to speak.“Did you ask her to be able to breathe underwater?” You question. Mark finds himself nodding slowly, embarrassed by his own actions that he realises that...he never really had to give anything to find you. “What did you trade?”‘I said to take something which wasn’t important.’You narrow your eyes at him. “You said that to a witch?”





	His Reveries

**Author's Note:**

> just to let u all know I will be writing again soon. hope u missed me xoxox

“You don’t have to believe me, but I do really think that they’re real.”

Mark avoids the stares of his friends, the group surrounding him on their table in the library. There’s a mix of people, from third years doing business to a few still finishing off their exams in school. He thinks that maybe just _one_ of them will believe him, but judging by their stares and stifled laughs, they do not.

“In your dreams, maybe,” Haechan jokes, shaking his head as he returns to his book. Mark purses his lips as he looks to Haechan, holding in any anger directed at the boy.

“I hate to say it Mark but… I agree with Haechan,” Taeyong says. He closes his book that’s on economics around Asia and sighs. “As much as we all wish there was some kind of fantasy world out there for us all, there isn’t. Fairies, witches and dragons, they all don’t exist.”

Johnny hums beside him, looking down to Mark with apologetic eyes. “It’s nothing personal it’s just that no one has ever found evidence of anything like that. I’d believe you if I saw the same things and I’d believe you if someone found the bones of a dragon I’d believe in them.”

“But I don’t believe in dragons,” Mark tells them.

“No, you believe in mermaids. You could have picked any creature but you picked the most useless one of them all. All a mermaid can ever do is… save you from drowning,” Haechan states, “if I was going to believe in anything then I’d believe in elves. They’re mages and they’re powerful and they can survive outside of water at the very least.”

Yuta scoffs, bringing all of the room’s attention to him. Though he doesn’t look up, he’s obviously done with everyone at the table now. “You just played The Elder Scrolls too much and think all elves are like that. I have news for you, that’s only _European_ elves.”

“It’s more realistic than mermaids though,” Jeno chimes in, finally able to push his textbook away from him.

The one who would have his back isn’t here, which is unfortunate to Mark. Usually he can count on Renjun to give a speech of _guys, shouldn’t we give it a chance? It’s perfectly plausible that mermaids exist and we just haven’t found them yet._

“Just because you don’t think they exist, doesn’t mean we all have to think the same way,” Mark says, directing his words towards Johnny and Haechan in particular.

“And just because you think they do exist, doesn’t mean that we have to as well,” Haechan returns. He crosses his arms over his chest and looks directly to Mark. “Are you going to tell us why _you_ think they exist, then?”

He could. He really could just say it all out loud and have them listen to one of the most fantastical stories they’ve ever heard.

Or he could just keep quiet about it, because Mark doesn’t really remember why himself.

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

The banging on the walls around him wakes Mark up from his slumber, one that wasn’t very good anyway. He’s found recently that his sleep is disturbed because he lays awake at night thinking about his dreams; the dreams he doesn’t want to have.

Lucid dreaming is what he thinks it’s called, but every time he tries to research it one of his _friends_ shows up and stops him from being able to. They think it’s all stupid.

“Mark, are you there?”

 _Just like that voice_.

He looks around the room, noticing that he’s no longer in his bedroom with the white walls and soft sheets. Mark is laying on the cold floor, one made of stone and completely shaking his bones. Though he sits up slowly to adjust to the lights and colours around him, he feels blinded by the shimmer of the water that surrounds the stone he lays on.

“Mark,” you call again, your voice closer to him and making him open his eyes. “Mark, where have you been?”

Mark is searching around the water for you, but the blue is clear and his mind is clouded. “Where are you?”

There’s a silence that looms around the room for a while, one which Mark dreads each time he’s here. His ears start to ring and he squeezes his eyes shut, curling into himself until the splash of water can be heard behind him.

“I’m here.”  

He turns, ears still full of pain. He’s met by your inviting eyes and he can’t look away. You’re mesmerising. The way your hair falls around your face and your skin seems to glitter. He just stares for a moment so he can remember your face past the next few hours he’ll spend with you.

Because no matter what he does, he can never seem to recall what you look like in the real world.

“Hi,” Mark says, voice quiet as he swallows loudly. He keeps his hands to himself despite the overwhelming urge to reach out and touch you. “I couldn’t sleep tonight.”

You shake your head, leaning your arms up onto the stone. The drops of water that fall from your skin end up soaking into his socks and chill his skin completely. “It’s okay. How are you?”

“Good. I’m good.”

“Have you been studying?” You ask.

Mark nods. “Of course.”

“Getting good grades?”

“Yeah.”

You hum, smile forming on your lips as you reach out to place your hand on to Mark’s knee. He’s frozen in his place but feels the need to pull back from you when you touch him. Just like he won’t admit to anyone that every time he’s down here he falls a little more in love with _you_ , he won’t admit that he’s scared of you.

You’re different. You’re a _mermaid_ and that tail of yours makes him wonder what _this_ is. Why he’s here in his dreams and why you even talk to him. Hell, he doesn’t even know why he’s still sitting here and he hasn’t run away from whatever place this is, but he knows he wants to.

“I wish that you were more open with me,” you tell Mark. Though you’ve let go of him, he can feel your touch on him. “We could be good friends, but I think you’re scared of me. Are you scared of me, Mark?”

He hates the fact that it’s _so_ easy for him to nod.

“Why would you be scared of me?”

“Because I don’t know who you are, or what you are,” Mark says, pushing himself back from water’s edge. He’s just far enough away that you can’t reach him, but he’s sure he can reach you if he wanted to. “I don’t even know your name.”

You nod, letting your head fall forward a little and your hair fall across your face. Mark feels as though he’s hurt you, his heart pounding in his chest as he recognises the hurt on your face. “My name is (y/n). We’re friends.”

“Are we?” Mark asks.

“We meet every night, do you remember?”

Mark shakes his head. “I remember coming here, but I don’t remember why. I just remember that I’m to expect… you. I never remember you or what you look like or anything about you.”

“And that’s why we end up doing the same thing every night,” you tell Mark, bright smile making him feel worse about what he’s said. He watches as you struggle to pull yourself out of the water, then makes an attempt to help you – except he doesn’t try that hard and before he can _actually_ help you falls straight back into the water and your head bobs up a second later. “Can you give me a hand, Mark?”

He wouldn’t have said no. His hands grasp your own wet ones, pulling you up onto the stone so you can rest on it. He’s stuck for a moment as the tail that replaces your legs completely mesmerises him from where he’s sat. “I remember that.”

“You always say that you think it’s pretty.”

“Pretty is an understatement,” Mark comments. He follows the scales from where they start by your wait to the very tips that are in the water, eyeing each colour of the rainbow he can see. “It’s beautiful.”

Mark notices your shy disposition as you look down to the stone, avoiding his eyes for a moment. “Did you tell your friends about me?”

Mark frowns, catching your gaze when he doesn’t answer for a moment. He tries to think of a time when he could have mentioned that to you, but as with everything else he can’t remember a thing. With you it’s all just fuzzy _almost_ memories that he can’t piece together.

“Yesterday you told me that you’d say something about me to them,” you remind him, shifting your position so you can see him clearly. “I didn’t expect you two, but I was wondering if you actually did.”

“They think I’m crazy for believing in anything that there’s no evidence of,” Mark states. He can see the disappointment in your face as you look back to the water, and there’s a surge of emotion that sweeps through his body as he reaches out his hand to place on your arm. “But I believe in you. I believe that you’re real.”

You hum. “You’ll meet me, soon.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’m magic,” you answer, raising your eyebrows to peak his interest, but then shake your head. “I know we will meet in real life because it’s my job to know that. I am your guardian after all and I’m meant to make sure no harm comes to you. It would be pretty bad if I didn’t remember when you were going to get hurt.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’m going to save your life and you’re never going to thank me for it because you won’t remember this, or remember me saving your life. But it’s okay, I won’t take it personally. I just wanted to tell you now because it was on my mind.”

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

“Hyung!”

Mark turns at the call from a voice he immediately recognises as Renjun, the Chinese boy always ignoring the fact that the library had strict _no shouting_ policies. He notices the very boy running towards him, Jisung following behind him with an emotionless face.

“Hyung I have to show you something,” Renjun repeats, voice slightly shaky as he approaches Mark, completely out of breath. Mark raises an eyebrow at his younger, waiting for him to say something. “It’s about what you were saying yesterday. About the mermaids and everything.”

Mark finds his interest beginning to peak, eyes looking down to the book that Renjun grasps in his hands. “Really?”

“Look at this book, it’s got really interesting things in it! I need to show you something that I read.”

Mark is happy to follow his younger to a table in the corner, checking behind to see if Jisung is still following. The youngest of the group is rather reserved and quiet, but he sometimes can be louder if he’s interested in something. Today Mark hopes that he’ll hear something from Jisung that he didn’t want to say back at the table when they were all there before.

They sit at the table, Mark choosing a seat between the two so he can see what they’re both doing. Much to his dismay, Jisung pulls out a textbook for maths and leaves Renjun too it – he clearly didn’t want to offer an opinion on what he had to say.

“So what does it say?” Mark asks.

“There’s so much on the history of mermaids,” Renjun tells him. He flicks through the pages of the book, one which looks rather old at that, stopping on a page which he’s marked with a post-it note. “Don’t get mad at me for not paying attention in class but… I found this earlier and I wanted to read it because I was thinking about what you said. I think mermaids are real too.”

Mark raises an eyebrow again. “You do?”

“Well, you do and… I trust you. You seemed so sure that they were real so why wouldn’t they be real?”

Though it weighs down on his conscience, Mark hums. He feels bad for spewing his own opinion and not considering that others may follow – sure, he’s happy that someone agrees with him but he doesn’t want Renjun to have people speak to him like how they did to Mark. He shakes it from his head though, looking back down to the writing on the pages.

“Tell me what it says, then.”

“It says that sometimes mermaids can be your guardians,” Renjun says. He points to the English words on the page and smiles widely. “I know it sounds stupid but… what if the mermaid you’re seeing in your dreams is your guardian?”

Mark pauses for a moment, staring at Renjun with wide eyes. “Who said that I saw one in my dreams?”

“Well Haechan said yesterday _in your dreams_ so I thought…”

Renjun looks down from Mark, eyes filled with disappointment when he realises that Haechan was using an expression rather than being _realistic_. Mark has to keep quiet; as much as he wishes to tell Renjun that _yes_ , he’s remembering something from his dreams, he doesn’t know how he’s quite meant to make that sound.

He doesn’t even remember what the mermaid looks like, yet alone if it’s speaking to him at all.

“What else does it say?”

Renjun looks up to Mark with wides eyes, stuttering when he realises that Mark wants him to continue. “Well… it says that sometimes you can connect with these mermaids by getting more emotional with them and trusting them more. The more you speak to them and get to know them, the more you can remember them. But I didn’t really believe that because if they were your guardian, they surely shouldn’t have to ask for things from you in return for your safety, would they?”

“What do you mean?” Mark questions, flicking between the book and Renjun.

“I mean that sometimes these mermaids ask you to fall in love with them in order for you to remember them,” Renjun states from memory. He glances at the post-it that has some written Chinese on it and hums. “They don’t like it when you love someone else and they hold your love in order for your life if you do ever fall in love with them. Over time they’ve been pushed away from their evil nature and how they treated people, but really they just sound…”

“Lonely,” Mark states.

He knows what that feels like.

“Yeah, they do,” Renjun continues, “they sound like they’re being deserted because they’re stuck in the water and those who fall in love with them can’t be bothered to pay the price of seeing them in their world everyday. If this was all true then I think that I would do whatever I could to be with the mermaid I fell in love with. Even give up my legs or my soul.”

Mark hums. He doesn’t know what to say and he certainly has no idea how he’s supposed to respond to anything to do with this. He lets it ponder over in his mind as he awkwardly glances to Jisung, noticing how the younger is shyly trying to join their conversation. He can be honest.

“I’d do the same. I’d give whatever I could to be with them.”

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

"I don't remember your name... I'm sorry."

You roll your eyes at Mark and lean back on the stone, arms behind you to make sure you don't fall over. "Really, Mark? I tell you every night."

"I can't remember you," he says softly, looking down at his lap with an apologetic look set in stone on his face. He doesn't _want_ to look up to you because he feels bad about not being able to remember a thing, but he feels like he has to. He feels like he needs to, and he does. "I'm really sorry. I wish that I could but... I can't."

You shake your head, hair rustling with your movements and catching Mark's attention. "It's okay, we do have all night. By the end of it you'll feel like normal with me!"

He notices how you laugh at your own words, eyes so bright compared to the darkness of the water below you. He shivers for a moment, but manages to share with you a smile that he thinks is sufficient to what you want from him. He feels nervous but he feels safe. He feels worried but not because of you.

It's because of the unknown which is surrounding him; eating away at him until he believes that there is no return from the world he knows nothing of. He tries to think back to those meditation videos he knew about. Ones that he could at least remember. In for five, out for eight.

In for five.

Out for eight.

That process stops when he catches your curious eyes and he realises that you don't understand what he's doing it and, more specifically, _why_ you're doing it.

"Are you okay?" you question, leaning closer to Mark and bringing the tips of your fingers to the curve of his cheek. He shies at your touch but embraces it when he realises you're not anywhere near as cold as he expected you to be. "Please don't be hurt. I don't want to stop seeing you."

Mark nods, eyes glancing briefly to your fingers before he looks back to you. "I'm fine. I just... Feel kind of weird. Am I usually like this?"

"Sometimes," you tell him.

"Do we meet a lot?"

"We've met every night for the past one and a half years," you answer, shrugging, "I guess you could say that's a lot. But I know mermaids who have been meeting people for much longer."

There's a silence that lingers in the room as Mark looks down into the water. He can't see anyone else, he's sure there's nothing else down there but somewhere deep down at the bottom there are things moving. "How comes my friends don't have people they meet like you and I do?"

"Because some people have other kinds of guardians. Angels, ghosts and faeries. There's so many different types of guardians and well... some of them can't show themselves so easily. Most people have to meditate to find their guardian but luckily you have me! I can easily find you and come through to you in your dreams."

"Because you're a mermaid?"

You hum. "Because I'm a mermaid. If I was a dragon it would be much harder and you'd have to find me but because I'm loving and peaceful, I want to help you. It also helped that we are near to each other and we both have the same interests. It makes you being able to imagine me much easier."

"Are we friends then?" Mark asks.

There's a look of innocence in your eyes that Mark truly hopes he'll never forget. The way you seem so surprised by his statement yet completely submerged in your own thoughts on the very topic. You didn't expect him to say something like that, but you're glad that he did and so is he.

"I guess we are," you answer, "yeah. You and I are friends, I know about all of your friends. My favourite is Renjun, he seems cute. You talk about him in the highest respects always."

Mark finds a smile beginning to form on his lips. If there was any doubt he had, it was gone. "He's a nice boy, he doesn't judge people for what they believe in and he listens to people."

"Unlike your best friend Haechan, right?"

"Yeah, Haechan," Mark says. He thinks that if there ever was a situation where Haechan was to hear all of that, he _may_ just believe a fraction of it. He's a good best friend in Mark's opinion, but he was easy to dismiss what he didn't actually believe in. "He doesn't believe in any of this."

"Well that's probably because his guardian is some kind of ghost. I wouldn't believe in this if I couldn't picture it being real."

Even though so little of this makes sense in Mark's head, he accepts it without question. He's past the point of pushing away ideas because they have no evidence and he certainly won't discredit you just because you can't prove it. No one has ever been able to prove ghosts and angels before.

And hell, if he suddenly didn't believe that someone could have a guardian angel then he'd have to believe that you weren't his guardian mermaid, either. Though really he thinks of you more as a guardian angel than anything - he feels like he's known you for _years._

"Please don't stop wanting to see me, Mark," you say softly. Your voice brings his attention away from the stone he's lightly scratching at. "I really like you, I like seeing you even if I have to tell you everything about us every time we meet."

Mark shakes his head, offering a smile that's just for you. "I promise that I'll try to remember more about you next time so you don't have to tell me about us."

"You don't have to do that. I don't mind telling you."

"I want to," Mark says, "I want to remember everything about you."

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

Unfortunately for Mark, no matter how many times he looks to the clock, it doesn’t seem to speed up at all. He thinks that he’s been listening to his lecturer talk about the historical implications of the romans for about four hours now, but really it’s only been twenty minutes.

He guesses it’s his fault though, he chose to do this subject and as much as he hates how monotonous and boring his Thursday afternoons are with this guy, the rest of it is okay. Plus he gets a whole hour of nothing to just sit here, not pay attention and think about whatever.

He’s sat right at the back of the lecture hall, pressed into the corner with his head leaning against the wall so he can close his eyes and be somewhat comfortable in his environment. The closest person to him was a few seats away and had been on their phone the entire time – he wouldn’t be any trouble to them if he turned his attention elsewhere, like the laptop in front of him that’s open on a word document that is yet to be written on.

So Mark, being Mark of course, decides to pull up safari and type in the first thing that comes to his mind.

_Mermaids._

He doesn’t want to admit to anyone just how eager he is about this topic, about finding the mermaid he vaguely remembers. It’s more vivid now than it ever has been before, the shape of the one in his dreams and what colours he sees. There’s pinks, there’s greens and there’s even more blues.

All the colours of the rainbow are stretched out on you.

Yet Mark can only see a blur, one covered by his feigned ignorance to the topic. He wonders that if he starts to accept how he sees things and what he truly believes in, he may see things a little more clearly. The truth will finally be seen and he can tell everyone about _everything._

But for now he’s stuck on google, and he’s looking at half-assed articles that really mean nothing to him. Wikipedia, a few charities and YouTube videos that really meant nothing to him are what plagues him first of all. He almost rolls his eyes at how stupid it all is, though he soon finds the kind of website he came here for. One which explains things to him like he wanted it to.

It’s a website made by people who practice Paganism, but there’s an article on mermaids that catches his eye. How it tells of mermaids who are meant to represent our unconscious desires, that they use their beauty and voice to entrance people and their distance from being like the sirens.

Mermaids are _not_ enchantresses. They wish for love and peace; they are the embodiment of feminine energy in the water.

As he reads more and more into the page, learning from the comments what others think of mermaids, or merpeople as many expressed, there’s an image that becomes far clearer.

The image of a girl with a tail that completely mesmerises him. A tail that’s covered in the most blue scales that are most regal, with surrounding greens that lead into pinks on the tips and in splotches all over. It’s so clear that Mark has to shut his eyes for a second, shaking his head as he feels a numbness spread all over him and his balance start to fade.

There’s a face which he can’t see clearly but one he knows that he _knows_. He’d be able to recognise you but the features are too blurry for him to ever be able to draw you or _imagine you_.

He tries so _so_ hard but he just can’t bring his mind to ease and picture anything more than the colours.

Even though he puts a brave face on for the rest of the lecture and sits there in silence with the usual pain buzzing through his ears, he can’t shake it off his mind. What he’s read and what he’s seen, all of it is running through his mind and he can’t concentrate on what’s being said around him.

He can’t even distinguish between English, Korean and Chinese right now. The world seems to be completely dazed and soaked with these colours which are all over him right now, stopping him from being able to do anything at all. He shakes his head again but he can’t get rid of any of it.

His reveries are starting to take over. The dreams and imaginations which he thought he could contain are leaking through and he can’t stop it no matter what he does. But does he like it? Does he want his dreams to start to become real life?

Of course he does. He’d sit here every day and read about mermaids and the world he’s so desperate to learn about just so he can remember. So he can work on that love he knows about now. Maybe the mermaid is making him fall in love but he wants to. So he can remember. Just so he can remember the face that’s in his nightmares and his dreams.

So he can have a real life fantasy and not one that there’s no evidence of.

He knows he needs to meet _you_.

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

Mark is oddly silent, watching you with the brightest of smiles on his face. You're diving down to the bottom of what he calls an abyss, but you call a playground, to give him something which you say is perfect for him.

And Mark trusts you now, so he wants to know what you have for him.

He hasn't told you yet but he's sure that he remembers something. Not what you've already told him about being friends and being his guardian, but he remembers more of you and what you look like. A face that stands out among others; a tail that glitters more than gold.

Telling you is something he'll wait to do, because for now he's concentrating on storing every single thing the two of you do into his seeming terrible memory.

"I got it!" you shout, appearing across the water from Mark. Your face and hair are covered in water and you rub it from your eyes with the backs of your hands, since you're holding something in your left palm. "You have to come here to get it!"

Mark's eyes widen. "You're joking, right?"

"Are you scared?"

"No," Mark says, unfortunately stuttering more than he planned to originally. He stares down at the dark blue water and swallows hard. "How deep is it?"

You laugh to yourself, closed fist panning across the water and splashing it towards him. "Not too deep, but deep enough for a few octopi to be down there. Do you want me to take you down to the bottom?"

"To the bottom?" Mark questions. He's looking so closely at you, his mind torn by your suggestion. "Is that even safe? Do you get... uh..."

"Decompression sickness?"

"Yeah, that."

You shake your head, swimming a little closer to Mark. "You have nothing to worry about, I'll make sure nothing happens to you. Don't you trust me?"

Mark's heart skips a sudden beat, one he never imagined to be skipped. He's not sure why your question means so much to him but it _does._ He stumbles over his own words for a second as he looks you directly in the eyes and realises that his answer means as much to you as it does to him.

"I trust you. I just don't really... like the sea. I guess. I don't know, I am kind of scared because I don't want to... I'm kinda claustrophobic, okay?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"There will be water all around me and I'll have nothing to do about it," he tells you. Though he wants to move closer to the edge, he shuffles backwards. "I'll pass on seeing the bottom. But thank you for the offer, if I'm less scared one day maybe I'll take you up on it."

You nod, though Mark isn't absent to the hurt in your eyes. He knows deep in his heart that just like he wants to show you around his own world, you want to show him around your own. He wishes it was easy for him, that he knew nothing would happen to him if he was to swim the oceans with you.

If he had a tail like you, if he was a part of the merfamily then this may be a completely different situation. The two of you could be together and he could be happy.

 _Hold on._ When he came down here he didn't even know your name, but now he's having feelings about you which he can't do anything about. Does he love you? No, that's impossible. It's almost as impossible as the thought of mermaids roaming the seas and protecting people from harm.

"This is for you, anyway," you state, voice soft and aligning with the soft lapping of water that's being created by your arms languidly moving in the water. "It may seem like nothing but these are quite valuable. To me, anyway."

Mark moves himself so he's closer to the edge of the water again. He watches as you swim forward, hands reaching out for the edge of the stone, gripping the surface tightly with your freehand.

A soft gasp leaves his lips when you open your palm, two pieces of rock in your hands. One is light blue, almost a green, but Mark knows it's blue jade because he's seen so many pictures of it already. It's all over history, and even though this piece is small he knows it's powerful. The other is red and he thinks it must be jasper or something of the kind.

"Someone must have dropped these before," you tell him, "I think you'll like them. It means peace, and I wanted to give it to you because I want you to know that I don't want to bring any harm to you."

Mark reaches out slowly, the tips of his fingers brushing the palm of your hand as he takes the crystal from your possession. "Thank you. It's beautiful."

Though he's caught looking at you, he doesn't look away. The stones you've given to him are beautiful, more beautiful than anything he's been able to hold in his hands before, but he doesn't want to look away. To him you're far better. You're more to him than anything else right now and he can't push that way.

"They’re beautiful, like you."

"Me?" you repeat. Mark relishes in the way your cheeks begin to blush and you look down from him. "Thanks. I, uh... thank you. It means a lot."

Mark nods, eyes still on you as you push yourself away from the stone. "I'll make sure I never lose these."

"Good, you should. Don't sell them either," you tell him. He notices how shy you've gotten and it brings the brightest of twinkles to his eyes. He feels more comfortable than ever, because you're more human than ever. "Do you remember what you said to me before, about me?"

Though Mark shakes his head, he's trying to think about things he's said before. 

It's all fuzzy, but he remembers sitting here with you and talking to you. The words are incomprehensible and his mind keeps drawing blanks every time he thinks he can work out what syllables are leaving his lips. The truth is, he has no idea, not until he sees the look in your eyes that makes him _want_ to remember everything. 

He doesn't need to, oh no. You'd have been with him no matter what, whether he remembered a thing from before. But for him, and for you, he has to remember. 

"I said I'd remember you, didn't I?"

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

Mark desperately clings to Haechan's jumper, following his younger closely as he leads him through the abandoned place. There's an echoing noise that lingers and it burns Mark's ears, his hands shaking as he tries to steady himself on the broken and shattered stone beneath his feet. 

There's not a thing that could calm him right now. No soothing voice, no dream he wishes not to enter, nothing could possibly bring him back to a state where he's happy to be here. He knows that there's something wrong with this place but he doesn't know how to tell his _oh so_ adventurous friends.

Like Johnny and Taeyong who are at the front, guiding the way for them all to the place they claimed was an abandoned prison that they used to torture prisoners in by locking them up and threatening to drown them. 

Like Yuta and Sicheng where at the back to make sure no one was left behind - or more specifically, to make sure that Mark didn't make a run for it when they weren't looking. 

"Are we almost there, hyung?" Jeno asks, his curiosity getting the best of him as he pushes past Mark and Haechan, catching up with the two leaders at the front. Mark feels the floor shake beneath him with the sudden pressure of the running and clings to Haechan's jumper a little tighter. 

He tries to ignore the whispers and words that are thrown around the group, instead opting to concentrate on what's around him. The stone walls that are covered in moss and the flooded tiles that he's mesmerised by. It glitters, it shimmers, just like his own muse that he sees night by night. 

The white shells are what really catches him, how nostalgic they ring in his memories of the dreams he can't see past each night. The wonderland which he wishes to reside in once every day, purely to escape from the world he lives in right now. 

And he's by no means living in a world where he is unhappy, he just has a connection to a world where he thinks he'll be happier. 

A world where he'll be in love. 

And that world alone makes him want to be in that world even more, because he can't imagine anything better than _that_. 

"Just down here and we'll be there," Taeyong says, gathering Mark's attention as well as everyone else. He looks across to where Taeyong stands, pointing down a corridor with steep stairs, water dripping down them. "I promise it's worth it."

Mark would have to believe him, because he always does. The last time Taeyong and Johnny has used their adventurous ways to find an abandoned house in a forest and everyone apart from Mark and Haechan had decided not to come because they didn't like the fact there may or may not have been ghosts lurking around. 

He's so absorbed in thinking about better times than this that he misses the rock on the floor and trips over it, stumbling to his knees before Haechan manages to stop him from completely falling into the water either side of the path and hurting himself.

Though his closest friend brings him to his feet and makes sure he's okay, Mark doesn't miss the _watch your step_ that's muttered as he keeps on walking. 

"You were right, this place is so beautiful," Yuta says, voice echoing through the entire walkway. Mark notices how pieces of rock crumble from the walls and he tries to hold onto Haechan a little tighter, only to get pushed away. 

"I know, right?" Taeyong comments. He's about to walk down the stairs, but stops to look back at the others before he does so. "This is just a warning, but there's a lot of open water down here so make sure you watch your footing and stay with someone just in case. I don't want something to happen to one of you guys."

Mark won't lie, he feels safe in Taeyong's company because the leader is a good guy who always cared for others. Perhaps he was too much of a pragmatist, but Mark liked it and he knew that he could at least trust Taeyong for his honesty and his peaceful aspects. That's the reason he follows Taeyong down there in the first place, because he feels like he doesn't have anything to worry about.

The stone is so familiar, like the splashing of water around him and the way he feels so subjectively to anything going on around him. His arms ache and his legs burn, he's not sure why though. He thinks it might be because he's tired, but then his name is called and something else hits him.

_"Mark?"_

He glances around, meeting the eyes of Yuta and Sicheng who both give him questioning looks. He's the next, one of the last, to go down the stairs and now he can see the bottom. Lights of all different colours are at the bottom and they shine on all of his friends. He doesn't know who called him but he knows the voice. 

"Are you okay, Mark?" Sicheng asks, stopping Yuta from getting any closer. The two boys both seem confused by his looks. "Is something wrong?"

Mark just shakes his head, placing his hand on the wall so he can guide himself down. "No, I'm fine. I just thought I heard something."

He _knows_ he heard something, he just can't argue now about it. They already think he's stupid for what he believes in, so for him to openly say he's hearing people call his name then they'll officially think he's insane. So he ignores it, he ignores the ringing in his ears as he gets closer to the bottom of the stairs.

Everyone around him is talking and he can't join in because his attention is elsewhere. It _is_ worth it. 

Taeyong hadn't over exaggerated and Mark can tell already. This looks like it's more than just an abandoned prison, the open plan becoming more than just cells which are rotting away. The air is filled with the smell of salt, and no matter what Mark does he can't shake the eerie feeling from his mind. 

He finds himself staring down into the water around him, open like Taeyong claimed it to be. He doesn't know what he's looking for but he feels like there should be something down there, a voice or a movement in the deep, or even a splash of water to let him know he's not alone. 

A splash of water that means far more to him than just knowing something is down there. It's one that lets him know _someone_ is down there and they're there for him.

"Did you see that!" Renjun is quick to push past Mark so he can stand with Jisung and Jeno, the pair who were crowded by the pool of water to the right. Fortunately Mark keeps his balance and makes his way to where the group of boys are now gathering.

"See what?" Johnny asks.

The tallest, fortunately, can see over everyone else from where he stands, but Mark is left at the back with no idea as to what's happening apart from what he can hear being said by everyone. He's sure they're talking about seeing a silhouette at the bottom of the water but he can't be exactly sure.

"There's something down there," Jisung mumbles, pointing down to the water, "I'm sure I saw something, it was moving."

Johnny laughs, taking a step back and looking over to the other side. "Stop scaring yourself, it's fine! Look, Mark looks as though he's going to cry because of you guys."

"I'm not," Mark defends, stuttering his vowels.

"I'm really sure that something was down there though," Jisung says, turning back again to the water. Mark notices how disappointed he looks and decides that he should comfort the younger, opting to stand by his side and look down into the depths, too. “Do you not see it, hyung?”

Mark shakes his head, taking a step closer to the edge. “It’s too dark to see anything down there. It’s probably just your eyes playing tricks on you. Don’t worry about it.”

Jisung nods slowly, looking over to Mark and then back to the others. Mark is too fascinated by the water, by the shapes and figures that he can see through the blue to notice everyone gathered on the other side of the path. He wants to tell Jisung that he’s sure he can see something down at the bottom too, but Jisung has disappeared from his side and Mark is left on his own.

He’s left on his own when Johnny calls his name and he’s left on his own when he stumbles on the uneven path and falls backwards into that cold, _cold_ water that covers his entire body.

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

He thinks that he's dreaming.

He _knows_ that he's not.

The lungs in his chest burn more than anything, as though someone has set the most ferocious of bonfires alight inside of him. His vision is blurry but he knows everything around him is blue. Only to a degree, though, there's green and pinks in places too. Different colours, and a regal blue that seems to wake him up.

There's no voices around him, but he can hear _something._ It sounds like the cries and screams of children when you're at the public swimming pool and you're underwater, but Mark knows it's more than that. If he listens hard enough he thinks he can make out his name but that's impossible.

Who would call his name in a place like this?

But there's something around him, arms that are clutching him tightly so he doesn't slip away. He can't _feel_ whatever it is, but he knows it's there and he knows he has to hold on. To the arms, to his life, to whatever is left over.

Things are becoming brighter though, the world around him seems less blurry and around him are the images of objects which he can't quite place his finger on. They're small, they're quick. They must be... fish?

"Mark," a voice calls, one which he's far too dazed to try to recognise. He can't blink, he can't breathe or speak. He just lays submissively to whatever is around him. "Mark, can you hear me?"

Mark so desperately wants to answer, but he can't open his lips. The more he tries the harder it gets to bring himself back to the reality he wants to be in. Who's calling his name? Where is he?

What happened?

"I'm going to help you, okay? Just keep listening to me. You're fine, you're going to be okay and you're going to make it out of here alive. You're okay. Everything is okay."

Somehow he manages to trust the voice in his head, believing it to be more true than just his fragile subconscious trying to grasp onto the strings of life that were being pulled away from him. He must be dying. He can't breathe and his heart is slowly giving up on him. There's a pain in his head that is like no other.

He _must_ be dying.

Yet he won't let go. The noises around him are muffled but the voice he heard was clear as day; nothing else had even been more vivid to him. He's okay. He'd dying but... he's okay.

"Just hold on a little longer," the same voice reassures him. He knows the voice, he knows it all too well. Who it belongs to, he's not sure, but he knows it's someone close to him. A girl, one he's close with at that. "We're almost there."

He's not sure if it's the collective term that warms his body, or the absence of the cold around him all of a sudden. It must be both, but either way Mark is still holding onto the life he has, like he's being told to.

Though that warmth spreads when he feels something on his lips.

"Can you hear me?" you say, breathless as you shake at Mark's body. He begins to cough, body shaking from the cold of the wet clothes all over his body. He doesn't open his eyes - he doesn't believe he has the strength to - and it sparks your words again. "Please be okay. _Please_."

Mark still can't open his eyes, but he can feel beneath him the rock he's laid on. There's some seaweed beneath his legs and his hair is dripping with water, though he becomes extra sensitive when he feels your lips on top of his own gapped ones.

 _Again_.

The world around him feels like fire for a moment and he can't concentrate on a thing. _You_. You're all that's running through his mind as the tips of his fingers start to move and his eyes stay shut - not because he can't open them, but instead because he doesn't _want_ to open them.

He remembers you.

This isn't a dream, and he still remembers you.

"Mark," you whisper softly, voice vibrating against his lips, "please don't leave me, I tried my best and I'm sorry. Please don't leave."

His eyes begin to flutter open, body shivering from the cold around him. He forgets the memories of you and sees the real you, the one that is leaning over his body to make sure that he's okay. "I'm... okay."

Your sigh of relief brings comfort to his aching bones, starved of oxygen from the fall. He remembers tripping, or something like that, falling into the icy water and not being able to swim back to the top. His body was to cold, something meant he couldn't float. But he never reached the bottom of the water, because you were there.

You saved him like you said you would.

"Don't move," you tell him, hands hastily moving to his chest so you can feel is heartbeat. It's not right, he's still in shock because _holy shit you just kissed him and this is not okay because he can't remember the first one but he's pretty sure you kissed him twice_ , but it's getting better. "Breathe, okay? Keep breathing and you'll be okay."

Mark nods, opting to take your advice. His mind lingers on the words you'd said before, that you were his guardian. Is that why you saved him? Mark remembers when you told him you'd have to save him.

Though he can't take his mind, nor eyes, off one thing. "You're real."

"I am," you say, words accompanied by the softest of laughs, "I told you I would save you, and I did."

"Thank you," Mark replies.

He wants more than anything to say more to you, but he isn't quite sure what he can actually say. That he's sorry for forgetting someone who can't be remembered? That he wants to talk? That he wants you to take him back down there so you can be together?

All those things are impossible; especially when he hears the calls of his name across the land behind him.

"Promise me you'll get some help, I want to make sure you're okay," you tell Mark. Your voice is rushed, and even though Mark makes the best of attempts to grab at your hand before you can move away, he doesn't get the chance to. "Promise me."

He nods. "Okay. I promise you I'll get some help."

And as quick as you found him under the blue of the water, you disappeared back into it.

He needed to find you.

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

"I really don't believe that you just... woke up under the water and swam up until you reached the rocks."

Mark catches Johnny's eyes, frown etched across the elder's face. Mark so desperately wishes to tell the truth but he knows that the only person who might have believed him isn't even in the room. It's Johnny and Haechan, the two who would _never_ believe what he had to say.

"Well that's what happened," Mark tells them. He claws at the blanket over his body in frustration as another image of you floods into his mind. "I don't know what else you want me to tell you, because that's literally _exactly_ what happened to me."

He's sure that the doctors don't believe him either - they said he was lucky to still be alive and that he should have drowned to when he sunk to such a depth. Then there was the problem of how he got from inside that cave _thing_ he was in, to the rocks outside. None of it really made sense.

Yet somehow making up all of these lies was easier than having to tell them his _guardian mermaid_ saved his life and kissed him out on the rocks so he didn't die.

"I know, it's just strange," Johnny comments.

"Are you sure that... there wasn't like, someone who helped you?" Haechan asks, sitting down on the chair next to Mark's bed.

Mark shakes his head. "Who would have helped me?"

"I don't know," Haechan answers. He looks off to the window with glazed eyes which widen with sudden realisation. "What if it was like a fisherman or someone out there swimming?"

 _Not_ what Mark wanted him to say.

"It definitely wasn't anyone. I think I'd remember if someone pulled me out of the water and saved my life."

The agonising part of this all was that, _yes_ , he remembered it all.

Mark remembered how your arms were around his body and you held onto him to make sure nothing happened to him. How you kept talking to him as the consciousness he had left in his body started to fade away.

Mark remembered how you laid him on the rocks and kissed him to bring life back into his shaken bones. He remembers how, although your lips were a little dry, they were perfect for him.

Mark remembered every time he'd seen you in his dreams, each part of you more vivid than the next. Your face, your body and your tail, more specifically, that had plagued his thoughts since he opened his eyes and you were right in front of him.

"At least you're safe," Johnny states, eyes slightly apologetic for getting Mark into this situation to begin with. "Taeyong said he'll pay for your lunch for the next month, and I'll drive you wherever you need to as an apology."

Mark shakes his head. "You don't have to do that."

"We almost killed you!"

"And?"

"And I need to make it up to you," Johnny tells him, "I don't care what you have to say, I'm doing it. At least until you're back to normal health."

Mark rolls his eyes, giving Johnny the most sinister of looks. "You're acting like I was stabbed. I'm fine. I literally was just... cold and a bit out of breath for a while. I'm fine!"

"Before you speak to soon, Johnny offered to buy dinner tonight. So can you pretend that you're really in pain or something just until after dinner?"

"Shut up, Haechan," Mark says softly. There is still a pain in his chest, but intuition would tell him it's not pain because his hurt from the water. "I'm fine, but I think you guys should all split dinner because none of you tried to jump in and save me."

Johnny groans. "It was freezing cold and you disappeared literally as soon as you fell in. Yuta said he would but... he didn't."

"What great friends you have, Mark."

"I didn't see you jumping in after him, Haechan."

Though Haechan glares at Johnny, Mark finds the humour in the situation and lets out a quiet laugh at their confrontation. It distracts him, but only for a moment. "Guys, it's not that bad. Honestly."

"But you are okay, aren't you?" Johnny asks.

_"Please be okay. Please."_

Mark nods slowly at his words, knowing that the question is directed at something which isn't troubling him. Yes, he's fine. He can breathe and yes he can walk easily so that isn't a problem at all. The water didn't affect his body at all, but it did do something else to him. 

His emotions; his feelings. They're a mess because of _you_. 

He always knew that you were real but he never could remember any of it until now. The private conversations between the two of you, they all made sense to him now because they were clear. He knew who told him they'd be there for him and he knew who he'd been talking to about things he couldn't tell anyone else. 

He knew who he'd fallen in love with after all this time. 

"I'm fine. Yeah, I'm okay."

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

As far as he can remember, Mark has always detested the woods for how dark they get at night compared to how beautiful they are in the day. He remembers being told stories about creatures who linger here and it scares him to no end; he wishes that he’d brought more than his phone as a flashlight because he’s on forty per cent battery and has no idea where the hell he is.

Of course it’s better than being stuck at the bottom of the ocean with no way to use a phone. His mind goes back to how dark and cold it must be for you waiting down there on the sea floor at night, with no one to talk to and no one to hold. The very thought sends a chill down his back and he pulls his coat tighter around him.

He can see a house in the distance though, one that is made of wood and decorated by the dimmest of candles on the stone path towards it. Mark knows that it must be what he’s looking for, so he trudges towards it with only the thought of _you_ swimming through his almost empty mind.

The fact that he’s visiting a _witch_ in the middle of a forest doesn’t scare him. What does scare him is that he’ll forever have this burning memory of you and it will haunt him to the day he dies if he doesn’t do something about it.

Yet still, he moves on towards the house and ignores the wind that gets even more chilling around him, hand stuffed into his pockets as the other makes sure he can see his path. He’s no psychic but he can tell something is different around here. Apart from the fact he knows someone who he’d never have believed in before he started seeing _you_ in his dreams is here, there’s so much energy that it’s hard for him to comprehend.

He knocks on the wooden door slowly, taking a step back when he realises that he’s standing so close to the door that whoever’s behind it may feel as though he’s intruding a little.

And there’s no answer for a while, not until he hears the creaking of wood and suddenly he’s faced with… no so much of a nightmare.

“Hello,” the witch answers, “Mark, is it?”

Mark notices her ice white hair first, the way it falls to her waist and surrounds her like an aurora. Though he knows she is anything but pure as white. Her blue eyes are like the water on the shallows of the most tropical of beaches, and lips pink as the roses which are sold in the flower shops en route to his school. She’s old, but not too old. Certainly in her sixties, but something tells Mark she’s much wiser than that.

Around her neck is a silver chain that holds a charm in the shape of a tumble stone, one that’s black and doesn’t shine nor shimmer in the light of her candles. There’s black music around her eyes ad her clothes are black too, just like the soul it hides.

“That’s me,” Mark says softly.

“Come in!” she states, hand reaching for Mark’s shoulder to bring him inside. He feels comfortable, but knows he needs to keep a watchful eye for what’s around him. “It’s so nice to see you. Sit down and I’ll show you what I have.”

Mark had found her on the street, her stall in the middle of the market selling crystals and herbs to those who would give her the time of day. It had been on his mind all day; he’d sat in his classes trying to work out how the hell he was supposed to find you when it came to him that a witch would be his best answer. That’s how he got _here_.

“Thank you for helping me,” Mark tells her, watching as she moves across the room to gather certain things. Books, herbs, incense. It’s all there.

“You don’t need to thank me,” she answers. Her attention is on what she’s gathering but when she turns around, she meets Mark with a smile. He’s not sure if it’s meant to tear straight through him. “I do what I can for people who take… an interest in what I can do. I’m surprised that you came to me with such a wish as you did. Most come here to get a blessing or speak with the devil.”

Mark stifles a laugh at her comment, trying his best not to take it to heart. “I didn’t know who else would help me, or _could_ help me.”

“Well dear, a sea witch is what you should be looking for. I know a few, one who lives in the west and always wears a hair net made of fishing line strings and shells she finds along the beach. You’d notice her because of those green lips she’s so fond of, and her strange looking attire, but she would be far too old to come all the way here and help you. She’s much, much older than me. I hear her daughter is looking into draconic practices but you see here, I don’t care much for all that fantasy nonsense. But you’re here now, so I’ll help you. You wish to be able to swim under the waters around you for a long time, yes?”

“Yeah,” Mark answers, “for as long as possible.”

She cocks her head to the side as she sits down on the chair opposite to Mark. He’s thankful of the desk between them, especially of the candles that separates him and her from having to touch. “What would you need that for?”

“I need to find something.”

“Something? Or someone? The last thing I need is for you to tell me you’ve fallen in love with a mermaid and you’re going looking for her.”

Mark knows he should have just said no for the sake of saying _no_ , but his mind is blank and he truly has no idea what would be better. Honesty or lies. You or him. He just keeps still, not opening his mouth and swallowing hard. If he’d been paying more attention he’d notice how her eyes became a little darker, but he’s focused on how all the candles flicker at once.

She smiles. “What are you willing to give to find _something_?”

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

He’s sure that this is what it must be like to be one of those bodies that are trapped in ice. Or rather, trapped under ice and suffocating because of the lack of oxygen. 

But he can breathe, it just hurts. It hurts like hell. 

So really, Mark isn’t suffocating at all, he’s just suffering. He’s doing his best to swim through all the darkness and find you. It’s hard. Too hard for what he can cope with, but he’s trying. 

All for you. 

He isn’t sure where he’s supposed to find you since he doesn’t dream of you anymore. His best guess was to go back to where he first met you and hope for the best, but that wasn’t paying off now. His arms were hurting because of the cold and his lungs were on fire. 

Though he keeps telling himself that if he waits a little longer, if he dives a little deeper, he’ll be able to find you. 

The worst thing is that he can’t speak down here. Well, he can – he tried it earlier and it didn’t really pay off. It just sounded like he was making random noises and he thought you’d never realise it was him, so he just stopped. 

Really, he hoped that you’d be able to sense that he was in pain and find him down here, struggling to achieve his one and only goal. He’d forgotten his school work and everything else he needed to do, all because he needed you. 

He’s been keeping time though, since that witch had told him he could only be under the water for twenty minutes at a time until he had practiced enough. It had been around eighteen, so he decides to go back to the surface before something serious happens. 

But it’s the surface where he finally gets what he wants, and he realises something that he should have a long time ago. 

“Mark?” 

He freezes; he doesn’t believe he’s seeing you in front of him but he is, and it shocks him back into the reality of the situation. 

“What are you... what?”

He tries to speak again, but only the most strangest of noises come out. His eyes are wide and he feels his body starting to shake from the cold around his wet body. 

“Are you not going to say something?” You ask, moving a little closer to him. He feels himself shiver as your fingertips graze over his arms, to his torso that’s still covered with his shirt. “What did you do?”

Again, he tries to tell you but nothing comes out. He has to mouth it. ‘I went to a witch.’

“You what?”

‘I.’

“Yeah...”

‘Went to.’

“Yes.”

‘A witch.’

“What?” Your wide eyes somehow tell Mark that he’s done something wrong. “What do you mean? What did you ask her for?”

Mark looks down to the water, preferring not to speak. 

“Did you ask her to be able to breathe underwater?” You question. Mark finds himself nodding slowly, embarrassed by his own actions that he realises that...he never really had to give anything to find you. “What did you trade?”

‘I said to take something which wasn’t important.’

You narrow your eyes at him. “You said that to a witch?”

Mark nods. He hadn’t realised she’d taken his voice in replacement for his new ability because he came straight here without speaking to anyone. He never expected you to be mad though, but he never realised you weren’t mad in the fire place. 

“Mark...” your voice is soft, soothing him as he looks up to you and noticed your gaze that seems almost apologetic. You sigh, moving your arms so they’re around his body. He slips into your embrace and holds you tight, too. “Why would you do that?”

He waits for you to pull back from him before he answers. ‘To find you. To be with you.’

“You don’t need to be able to swim underwater to be with me!” You exclaim. You’re frustrated, but only because he’d done this to himself. “Mark, you idiot, I would have seen you anyway! This isn’t the little mermaid, we don’t need to trade things in order to be together.”

Mark raises his eyebrow. 

“Yes, I know about the little mermaid and I think it’s stupid. Who the hell would trade a tail for legs and be stuck on water? Anyway it doesn’t matter, we need to change this back.”

Again, Mark raises a brow at your words. He remembers the witch saying something about it being irreversible but ignore it for now. ‘How?’

“I don’t know. But you can’t lose your voice forever. I know it seemed like a good idea but... you’re going to freeze to death in here. Did you not see the titanic? You’re not going to be Jack any time soon. Get out before you get too cold.”

He wants to stay in here with you for longer, but he does as you say regardless. As he pulls himself for the water, you to the same, sitting on the edge of the stone he knew all too well. As you sit side by side, Mark finds a smile falling onto his lips. He just so badly wishes he could speak. What kind of person says that to a witch?

Someone who’s in love and in a hurry, actually. 

“What?” You ask, noticing his stare. 

Mark laughs softly, shuffling closer to you. ‘Thanks for saving me.’

“You’re thanking me for doing my job?” You ask him. Mark nods once, wanting to see your reaction. “I just did what I had to do. I wasn’t going to leave you to drown down there, was I?”

Mark nods. He had the same train of thoughts, but he’d been hoping it was because you had feelings for him, too. It would make everything better, he’d feel like it wasn’t a shot in the dark trying to get to you this whole time. 

But then again, you’re a mermaid. You’re not even meant to be real. 

“You’ll get your voice back, won’t you Mark?” You ask, placing your hand over the top of his. “Don’t give up your voice for me.”

♋︎♋︎♋︎♋︎

He’s back at that house again, standing outside the door and banging on the wood so he can change everything. He’d ran all the way here, as it seemed, because he didn’t want to keep you waiting and he was so desperate to talk to you that he’d have done anything in there to speak with you again.

This time though, he’s not scared of what’s to come. The howling wind and the darkness that surrounds him isn’t any match for the urgency of his actions that brought him here in the first place. It would take a whole lot more than a possibly haunted forest to scare him.

“You’re back,” that _damned_ witch says as she opens the door, “don’t like what I did?”

Mark _can’t_ answer her, so stares her down instead. His narrowed eyes are meant to show how pissed off he is, but he probably ends up looking more like a star crossed lover who wants the love of his life back to him.

“I knew this would happen. I knew you were out there looking for a mermaid and all of this would go wrong. Come in, and you tell me whether this belongs to you.”

Mark does as she says, following behind the elderly lady with caution. He knows now that she’s in no way sweet and probably could cause him a _lot_ of problems, so he’s weary. The candles are still lit and even though it’s not too dim inside, his eyes are brought to the brightest of objects he would ever be able to see.

 _You_.

“Weren’t expecting this, were you?” she says, sitting down behind the desk that was all too familiar to him. “You see, I had a feeling that _this_ is what you were doing so I did some investigating. You gave up your voice and now you want it back, and I’ll do it for a price.”

Mark nods once, glancing over to you. You’re silent in the corner, sat in what Mark assumes is some kind of wooden shelter with water inside of it. He knows you’re uncomfortable, but he doesn’t quite understand what is going on, why you’re here and _why the hell you’re not talking._

“I’ll give you your voice back, Mark.”

Mark raises his eyebrows at the witch, her frail body sunken into the chair as she smiles at him. He waits for a moment, watching as she leans over to burn some herbs onto her fire and whisper something softly. This all still begs the same question, _why_ are you here when he was with you merely an hour ago and came straight here?

The witch notices his longing glance towards you, her cackled laugh leaving her lips from the sight. “In return for you to speak I will ask for something back.”

“What?” Mark says. He stumbles over his own words when he realises that he’d just spoke. You look relieved, but he’s not so sure this is over yet.

“First I would look to (y/n) about. You see, I’m in a lot of debt with people, and more specifically I owe things to people. In my old age I find it so much harder to leave the house and speak with people, buy ore things and such, but what I need are a few of those scales. A few hundred should do the job for what I owe, but I still need a payment for having you breathe underwater. So I would like to keep you here with me.”

Your eyes widen as you shake your head. “You know I can’t stay here for too long. I shouldn’t even be out of the water for this long.”

“What else could I give you instead?” Mark asks. He pushes why you’re here to the back of his mind, it’s obvious this lady is more powerful than he can comprehend. _All_ of this is too much for him to comprehend. “Money?”

“Money is worthless to me. It would have to be something I could… use.”

Mark swallows hard, knowing he’s stuck in a situation he might not be able to get out of. Out of habit for when he’s nervous, he rubs his hands up and down his thighs to stop them from sweating. It’s then that he feel something in his pocket and he remembers something from before.

_"Someone must have dropped these before. I think you'll like them. It means peace, and I wanted to give it to you because I want you to know that I don't want to bring any harm to you."_

“What about these?” Mark says, digging his fingers to the depths of his pockets. He doesn’t know how they got there, he just knew you gave it to him. “Blue jade and… jasper. They’ll get you something, won’t they?”

The witch gives him a questioning look, eyeing what’s in his hands. She stands up slowly, taking a few steps towards him as she checks what’s in his palm. “Let me see them.”

Mark’s happy to give them away, letting her take them from his grasp so she can sit back down on her chair. He looks hopeful, catching your eyes and giving you a smile to try and get you to think positively. He’s distracted by the short, exasperated gasp that comes from the lady’s lips.

“This is jadeite and bloodstone. How did _you_ manage to get your hands on this?”

“Will it be enough to pay you for all of this, or not?” Mark questions. He’s anxious, but when he sees how the witch begrudgingly looks up to him with the harshest of stares, he thinks he knows the answer to his question.

Even though you told him not to sell it, to lose it or give it away, he wouldn’t have listened. You saved him, and now he’s repaying you by giving something valuable away for you. He wouldn’t have thought twice about doing that, he’s not going to lose you just as he’s found you.

His adventures with you, his guardian, one of his reveries, is only just starting.


End file.
